Urban New Agers Have Taken Over the Art of Dowsing

Once an arcane rural art, used almost exclusively to find water, dowsing has been taken over by urban New Agers who use it to make any and all kinds of decisions, from what movie to rent to whether a person is a potential partner. For most, the forked stick has given way to a pendulum. Some use it not only to make decisions but to ward off "geopathogenic rays" and the like. True believers say such dowsing gives them something they feel is otherwise missing from their lives.